Jaguars and Ravens Have Prayer and Moment of Silence for Victims of Mass Shootings

With two mass shootings over the past weekend, NFL players are finding it difficult to get back to [...]

By John Newby

With two mass shootings over the past weekend, NFL players are finding it difficult to get back to the grind of training camp. It's difficult to focus on what pass play will work the best against a specific defensive formation when there are people across the country losing their lives on a seemingly daily basis.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens are well aware of this, and the two teams decided to honor the victims in any way that they could before starting their joint practices on Monday. As shown in a post on Twitter, the players from the Jaguars and the Ravens knelt together on the practice field, holding hands and praying. They also held a moment of silence to honor the recent victims.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 255 mass shootings in 2019. The two most recent came over the weekend in less than 24 hours. Saturday, a 21-year-old white male reportedly targeted immigrants and minorities at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. This domestic terrorist attack left 22 people dead.

Sunday, another mass shooting was confirmed, this time in Dayton, Ohio. In this tragic event, a 24-year-old male named Connor Betts killed nine people in less than one minute with a .233 caliber rifle while attacking a portion of the city known for its nightlife. One of the victims was his younger sister.

With 255 mass shootings in 216 days, it would be easy to become overwhelmed by the regularity with which these tragic events occur. Focusing on the task at hand could become far more difficult, or it could ultimately seem meaningless in comparison to other issues.

That being said, the Ravens and Jaguars know that they have to forge ahead in their daily lives and continue going to work each and every day. They just will do so while remembering those that lost their lives over the weekend and trying to honor them in any way that is possible.

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